European stocks rose while oil prices fell as peace dialogue between Russia and Ukraine showed positive signs while U.S. treasury yields hit a two-and-a-half-year high despite expectations of the first rate hike.
Moreover, most stocks on Wall Street traded weak amid investors ’cautious sentiment over the Russia-Ukraine conflict and await the outcome of the Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting this week.
Thomas Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital New York, said the dialogue had halfway reached an end point that would see little progress, but the two sides still had not reached any agreement and the results of the discussions showed unreasonable results for investors.
However, some delegates said a draft agreement would be reached in a few days, further giving a positive signal about the outcome of the dialogue.
As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial average index rose 1.05 points at 32,945.24 while the S&P 500 lost 0.74% at 4,173.11 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 2.04% at 12,581.22.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 1.2% and MSCI’s worldwide stock gauge was down 0.74% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.58%.
The benchmark US 10 -year yield rose 2.1419%, its highest level since July 2019.
According to Hayes, the expectation of a 25 basis point rate hike by the Fed will cause 10 -year yields to rise sharply, which will see a positive yield curve and give the impression that flatness may be coming to an end.
He added that investors were expecting a more aggressive rate hike this year after data showed annual inflation rising rapidly in 40 years.
Meanwhile, the dollar depreciated but remained at a 21 -month high with the dollar index falling 0.056% as investors focused on peace dialogue.
As for the commodity market, Brent oil futures fell 5.1% at $ 106.90 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 5.8% at $ 103.01 a barrel.
Gold prices fell 1.6% at $ 1,952.87 per ounce while U.S. gold futures fell 0.91% at $ 1,959.60 per ounce as U.S. treasury yields rose.
